PRETAX PROFITS at the Cork-based Irish arm of the US-owned Altera dropped by 44 per cent to $12 million (€9.2 million) in 2009.

Accounts recently filed with the Companies’ Office show that Altera European Trading Company Ltd’s revenues in 2009 fell from $547.5 million to $483.8 million.

The company established its European Shared Services Centre at the Cork Airport Business Park in 2004 and the site is the administrative centre for the company’s European and Japanese sales.

Altera designs, manufactures and markets programming logic devices and software development tools.

The sales recorded by Altera’s Irish unit accounted for 40 per cent of the company’s global sales of $1.1 billion in 2009.

Directors attributed the decline to “global economic conditions weighing on the company’s sales performance” although they pointed to a “sharp upturn in demand” in the fourth quarter.

The accounts state that the number employed by the company during 2009 was 23 with staff costs at $2.5 million including pension contributions, while emoluments to directors increased in 2009 from $206,000 to $253,000.